How to Delegate: Getting Great Work from Your Employees

Whether your employee asked for more to do or you decided that you needed to pass something along, you should be prepared to delegate tasks properly. For those who are concerned with how delegating tasks looks, proper handling will make it clear that you are doing what is best for the company.

How to Delegate: Matching the Person to the Task

This is the first and most important step in delegating tasks. Once you have decided it is time to delegate, you have to fill in the missing piece. If you don't match the task you delegate to the strengths of the person performing the task, you may end up with less than quality results.

It would be great if the person who needs more work is well matched to the task you'd like to delegate. Unfortunately, this will not always be the case.

If the person has the skills for the task but lacks experience, you may want to consider turning it over to them anyway. In this case, you will need to be prepared to work more closely with the employee. This added training can be a benefit to the employee and to the company.

Sometimes, though, it is better to delegate a task more in line with the employee's specialties. This is especially important if you will not have the time to work with the employee and improve their skills.

How to Delegate: Meeting and Explaining

You have selected a task to delegate and picked the perfect employee to handle the task. What is your next move?

To properly delegate a task, you need a better strategy than the "drop and run". Saying "it's your baby now!" as you scamper away in glee may be fun, but it will also set the project up for failure.

Set up a preliminary meeting with the employee who will be handling the task. Prepare to discuss the following aspects of the task that you are planning to delegate.

*Length of the Project - Is this a temporary project, or a task for which the employee will be responsible indefinitely?

*Why this Employee - Why are you delegating to this person? Do they have specific strengths that will help? How will this benefit them?

*Scheduling - Do you believe this employee has the time for the added work of this task? Do you plan to delegate some of the employee's existing work to someone else?

While it may seem that the employee should just accept the delegate task, giving the employee this sort of information shows respect. It also helps the employee feel more comfortable with the delegated task. Both of these things increase the likeliness that the employee will perform well.

How to Delegate: Covering All the Bases

To delegate effectively, you must set your employee up for success. Your employee's performance will reflect on you. If your employee does well, you show good leadership. If your employee does poorly, you show ineffective leadership and may also have to take back the project.

The first step to set your employee up for success with a delegated task is to give the employee all of the information. A good practice is to go through the task you plan to delegate and write down everything: what you did, where you looked things up, whom you asked for information. It is easy to forget some steps when explaining a task that has become routine.

You will also need to give your employee whatever authority is necessary to be successful in the task you delegate. Will this employee have to ask other employees for help or information? If so, they need to be aware of the situation and of what is expected of them.

Perhaps the most important thing in making sure your employee is successful with the delegated task is to be available. Let your employee know that you don't expect them to guess. Tell your employee that questions or problems should be addressed to you, so that you can solve them together. Be sure to follow through with this.

**If you have not already done so, it may help for you to read the first article in this series, Why You Need to Delegate Tasks and Work, and When You Should Delegate. Also, please look for the other articles in this series to explain how to follow up with delegated tasks and how employees should handle tasks that are delegated to them.